


Been to Hell and Back Again

by Literallyliterary



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 24 hour diner au, American AU, Driving Between California and Arizona: The AESTHETIC, F/M, Gratuitous Coffee Drinking, Marcus/Katie, Minor Character Death in Backstory, Modern AU, Muggle AU, POV Alternating, References to Drunk Driving, past Katie/Oliver, references to death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:09:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23925157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Literallyliterary/pseuds/Literallyliterary
Summary: Katie Bell is hiding from painful memories, and Marcus Flint can’t sleep. A modern, Muggle, American 24 hour diner AU. Written for the Pen15 Is Mightier Multiverse Challenge.Part 2 (where all the rated M stuff is) is coming soon.
Relationships: Katie Bell/Marcus Flint
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12
Collections: Pen15 Challenge 11: A Multiverse of Possibilities





	Been to Hell and Back Again

There wasn’t a bell above the door to the diner. Instead, a tinny electronic chime went off every time the door opened and someone passed through. Katie Bell spent her first shift flinching every time it sounded, much to the amusement of the cook whose name she couldn’t remember. He was tall and broad shouldered and he was a terrible cook but his job wasn’t so much to be a culinary genius as it was to be the bouncer or bodyguard to whoever was stuck as the lone server during the night shift. Katie stood on one foot so she could roll the ankle of the other foot around, wincing as it cracked and popped. She needed better shoes. She needed to work more shifts to afford better shoes. She looked around, sure that no one was watching her, then slipped her right foot out of her shoe and placed it on the tile floor, sighing as the cold seeped through her sock and soothed the pain in her foot.

The furthest corner booth was occupied by a homeless-looking man who ordered a cup of coffee and paid in mixed coins. She had been told in training not to let anyone sit at the booths for too long without ordering something to eat, but he wasn’t hurting anyone and hadn’t asked for anything for a long time. In fact, he seemed to have fallen asleep. She thought about going to wake him up and kick him out, but she kept putting it off. Why should she disturb someone else’s sleep just because she had to stay awake?

She had only heard the door chime twice by the time she was halfway through her shift, so when it went off again a little after one in the morning she nearly jumped out of her skin and slipped her shoe back on.

The man coming in the door didn’t look at her, just sat at the corner stool at the counter and stared at his hands. She stared at him from her post at the register at the other end of the counter. He had the darkest under-eye circles she had ever seen, and his hair was a shock of extremely messy black waves on the top of his head. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in weeks. She gathered up a menu and a roll of silverware and headed toward him.

“Good morning, welcome to Joe’s Diner. Can I start you off with something to drink?” she said, mustering up what little cheerfulness she could. It wasn’t much.

The man jolted, as if her voice had woken him from a deep slumber, and he glared at her for a moment, dark eyes narrowed.

“The fuck are you?” he finally got out.

Katie raised an eyebrow at him, “I could ask the same.”

He blinked a few times, then grunted out something that sounded like “coffee” or maybe “stop me” but she assumed it was the former.

She grabbed the coffee pot and filled the mug in front of him. She placed a container of sugar and a pot of cream in front of him, which he looked at blankly.

“Who are you? You’re new.”

“I am new.” She deliberately ignored his other question. She was wearing a nametag, he could read it himself if he wanted to. But he didn’t seem bothered.

“I’m in here a lot, so you’ll have to remember my order so I don’t have to tell you each time. I take my coffee black. I get two eggs over easy, sourdough toast, and two slices of bacon. Crispy. And the coffee cup stays filled. Do we have an understanding?”

She stared at him, mouth agape, “Yeah, I think I can handle that.”

She studied him closely with a raised eyebrow and pursed lips. He looked to be about her age, maybe a bit older. No older than thirty. He was handsome, but not in a typical, obvious way. His skin was smooth and his lips were full, and his eyes were intense and dark. He looked up and caught her staring at him.

“Any time you’re ready.” He sneered and she caught a look at his teeth, which were very crooked but oddly suited his face.

Katie blinked twice, then went to the window to place the order with the chef, who was sitting in a corner playing with his phone. When she read the order out, he laughed and cracked two eggs on the skillet, slapping two pieces of bacon down next to them. The sizzles and pops filled the air.

“That guy, huh? Yeah I know him, orders the same thing every time he’s here. You can just tell me that the regular is here and I’ll make his order. That way you don’t have to talk to him. He’s pretty rude to the girls who work here.”

“What’s his deal?”

“Dunno. He’s just not a nice guy. He doesn’t talk to anyone, and when he does he tends to get snappy. If he gives you trouble, let me know.”

“Thanks.”

She walked back to the counter and brought the coffee pot over to the man, pouring him a fresh cup. The steam twirled in the air under the man’s nose and he inhaled, the expression on his face softening slightly. He could almost be smiling, Katie thought, if such an unpleasant man could ever smile for anything. She went back to the window to wait for the man’s order, and then glanced at him over her shoulder. He was staring at the aged, cracked countertop and picking at a loose piece of vinyl on the seat, and seemed to be lost in deep thought. He blew on his coffee before drinking every time he lifted the yellowish mug to his mouth.

He didn’t look like a truck driver, the usual customer that stopped by Joe’s. He looked like he never went outside in the daytime, even though he had olive skin it had a light pallor that screamed to Katie that he worked indoors, probably with computers. He started jiggling his right foot up and down rapidly, not consciously or out of impatience, but out of some inner energy that was trying to escape. His shoes were well worn but clean, his jeans the same.

A loud DING shook her out of her thoughts and she spun around to the window where the chef was laughing and holding out a plate for the man at the counter. She scowled at his laughter and grabbed the plate, placing it roughly in place without a word. She refilled his coffee cup and went back to leaning against the counter by the register and staring into space fiddling with the ring on her necklace.

It was too bad she wasn’t allowed to use her phone while on the clock, though she wouldn’t have anyone to talk to anyways. Her friends were three time zones away on the East coast, she quite obviously didn’t talk to her father, her mother had passed away several years before, and obviously Oliver was-

She shook her head as if she could dislodge him from her thoughts. She wouldn’t do that to herself, wouldn’t bring Oliver into this. She was here because he wasn’t, and that was just how it was. She could hear Doctor Brennan’s voice in her head telling her to focus on the present. So she looked around the diner again, hoping to find something to distract her.

She should have brought a book.

-

Marcus scowled down at his plate as he shoveled eggs into his mouth. The new server had thrown him off, his normally silent hours in the diner suddenly interrupted by a new voice, a new face, one that had spoken to him when no one had addressed him in that diner for years. His comfort zone was thoroughly shattered, and he knew he was acting like an ass because of it. But he wasn’t going to apologize. He hadn’t technically done anything wrong. Being an ass wasn’t against the law. But as he watched the new server stand with her back to the register, leaning heavily on the counter, fiddling with her necklace and staring into space, he couldn’t help but feel bad.

He was just about to open his mouth to ask her name when the sleeping homeless man in the corner booth got to his feet with a shout. The server shot to attention with a panicked expression and her hand on her heart.

“Are you alright?”

“M’fine,” the very intoxicated man responded, then promptly tripped over a chair, knocking it to the ground, “Thanks for letting me stay, gorgeous. I needed that sleep. Y’all take care now.” He belched loudly and stumbled out of the door as it chimed again. The man’s loud, drunken voice and the sound of the door chime made the server flinch and tense, and she didn’t relax until the door shut behind the man and he had wandered off into the night.

Marcus watched as she went to the window and murmured something to the chef on the other side. The chef’s loud laughter and jovial voice carried into the dining room, but Marcus couldn’t understand what he was saying. He shook his head. It didn’t matter, it wasn’t his business. He was just here to eat mediocre diner food and kill time when he couldn’t sleep, not stare at pretty servers and listen to conversations that weren’t about him.

Unless the conversation was about him. He looked up right as the server looked over her shoulder at him, but she looked away quickly with a guilty look on her face. He sighed and looked down at his now-empty plate. He must have acted more like an ass than he thought. Typical.

Her hand came into his field of vision as she slipped the plate from the counter. He looked at the ring finger on her left hand, trying to learn more about her. There was no ring there, but her skin was lighter where a wedding ring would have been, as if she had been wearing one until very recently. She looked young, maybe in her mid-twenties, blonde hair tied back into a neat ponytail, brown eyes rimmed with dark eyeliner. She looked exhausted- not just tired from the late hour, but deeply drained.

He was staring, and she had noticed. She raised an eyebrow like a challenge, daring him to make another rude comment.

“Can I get you anything else to eat?”

He blinked a few times before he registered that she was talking to him, “No, I’m alright.” She walked away again and he called after her, “Thank you.”

She stopped and Marcus immediately felt like an idiot. What was he thinking? She probably thought he was a total nutcase, wildly vacillating back and forth between acting like an ass and being nice, and she was probably going to ask him to never come back, or maybe she didn’t need to ask maybe he would just stay away.

“You’re welcome.”

Her voice pierced his rapidly spiraling thoughts, slowing his panic down. He looked back up at her and she was smiling softly.

“I’m Marcus,” he choked out.

“Katie. Nice to meet you, Marcus.”

\-----

Hours later, near the end of Katie’s first shift at Joe’s Diner, and she was still talking to Marcus.

They hadn’t gotten off to a good start, but after he had finally given her a ‘thank you’ she decided to give him a chance to start over. After only a few minutes of observing him and watching his face she was starting to figure out that the misanthropic exterior was hiding a complicated interior.

He still sneered instead of smiled, but his eyes softened when they discovered a shared love of soccer, each having played through high school and college. He even made her laugh describing the kind of horrible clients he worked for. He worked in marketing and his company was based overseas which meant he could work from home but his hours were based on wildly different time zones, which explained the fourth cup of coffee he drank before he finished eating.

“So why do you come here so often? Not enough to do at home?”

He shrugged and frowned, so Katie decided not to press it. She knew better than anyone what it was like to have something you didn’t want to talk about.

She was restocking the napkins in the dispensers on every table and wiping down every menu. Her replacement would be coming any minute.

“My apartment sucks,” his voice rang out through the empty diner and seemed to startle even himself, “That’s why I come here. I mean have you seen this town? It’s trash.”

Katie knew as well as anyone what the town was like. Her own apartment was also terrible, but it was better than being back in the town where Oliver had died. She simply nodded and kept wiping down the table she was working on.

After the accident, Katie had found herself adrift in a sea of grief and pain, and being near her overbearing family and well-meaning friends was too much to handle. She told only her best friends Alicia and Angelina, then retreated West to California. She attempted to live in the city but eventually ended up out here. It was the smallest town she could find, way out in the middle of the desert off the 10 freeway, a town made of gas stations and fast food restaurants, a town made for stopping through but never staying.

Katie stayed. The place was perfect.

The nights were always the worst, so she worked through the dark, kept busy at home until she was finally hired at the crappy little diner. She was given her own shift, 40 hours a week, and she was left alone, which is just how she liked it.

“The town isn’t so bad,” she started to say, but shook her head and laughed quietly, “I mean, it’s not great. But it’s not… it does the job.”

“You’re not from here then,” Marcus snorted, “No one who’s from here chooses to stay here, let alone thinks it’s ‘not so bad,’”

“No, I’m not from here,” Katie moved away into the dining area to wipe down a few tables, even though no one had sat there since she had wiped them down last. She just needed to busy herself with something, and luckily Marcus seemed to realize that, because he changed the subject.

“There’s a bar down the street. It’s never crowded because it’s mostly locals, but my friend is a bartender there. If you ever stop by, you let him know I sent you. He’ll take care of you.”

“I don’t drink. Not anymore.”

Marcus snorted again, “If you’re going to keep living here you’re going to want to. It’s miserable and it only gets worse in the summer. Have you ever lived somewhere where the temperature pushes 120?”

Katie shook her head and caught her lower lip between her teeth. She thought about lying, but something about the man sitting at the counter made her want to be honest with him. She moved back behind the counter and put the rag away.

“I don’t drink because my husband was killed in a drunk driving accident.”

-

Marcus recoiled sharply and nearly fell off his stool. That wasn’t at all what he was expecting to hear, but as she said it he got a better look at the necklace she wore and realized it was a wedding ring on a delicate chain. The tan line on her finger and the deep sadness in her voice further confirmed it. He swallowed thickly and nodded, and Katie continued.

“My father was driving. Oliver was the passenger. They had gone out drinking just the two of them after we got back from our honeymoon, and I guess my father thought he was good to drive. He wasn’t.”

“Jesus, Katie. I’m sorry.”

Katie waved a hand, “It’s fine. I’m fine. You see, I’ve been through a lot of therapy, I saw my father being carted off to jail, and I buried my husband. Plenty of closure. And now I’m here where no one can find me, living on my own and making decisions for myself. I’ve got good friends on speed dial if I need to get out, and I’ve got a job where I get left alone for the most part. I’m fine.”

Marcus was speechless. He gaped at the blonde in front of him, unable to say a word.

Katie smiled, “I’ve been through just about all a girl can go through by twenty-five. And it brought me here,” she refilled his coffee and slid the receipt toward him, indicating it was time to pay up, “My replacement will be here any minute, and I want your bill under my name so my boss knows I did _some_ work tonight. It is my first night after all, I want to make a good impression.”

Sure enough, Marcus could see the sun start to peek over the mountains way off in the distance, the sky was a dark, melancholy blue but was getting lighter by the minute. He fished out his wallet and threw down enough for cash and a small tip. He frowned at the pile of money and added an extra dollar.

“Take that back, Marcus. I don’t need your pity dollar. I didn’t tell you that story to get your cash. Plus, I know you’ll return. I’m sure I’ll get lots of money from you soon enough.” She winked at him and he smirked back.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” he got up from his stool, “Get some rest.”

Katie laughed and wished him the same, and as he left the diner and trudged through the dawn toward his shitty apartment, he replayed that laugh over and over in his head like a song.

\-------

Before Marcus walked into Joe’s Diner the next night, he attempted to fix his hair. He hadn’t combed his hair properly in a long time, choosing instead to run his fingers through it in the shower and call it ‘good enough.’ But as he jaywalked across the street, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his leather jacket, he caught sight of the sickly yellow neon sign that announced his arrival and suddenly got nervous. He ran his hands through the unruly waves and made his best effort to look presentable. He didn’t think about why. He chose to not think about why.

The horrible whine of the chime went off as he entered the diner and he saw Katie wince, just as she had the night before. But unlike the night before, when she saw him she smiled a real smile, not the fake customer service smile he figured she must practice.

He took his usual seat at the counter and looked around. The diner was empty, no one lurked in the corner booths. The ancient jukebox in the corner was squawking out a tune, and within moments the smell of bacon was wafting through the room.

“I’m a fast learner,” Katie’s voice startled him, and he chuckled as she poured him a cup of black coffee.

“I’m sorry about that. I’m a bit of an asshole before I’ve had my coffee.”

“So long as you own it, I guess.”

She grabbed his food from the window and sat it in front of him, then leaned up against the cash register and picked up a book. He tilted his head to read the cover.

“Are you reading _Brave New World_?” He said through a mouthful of egg.

“So what if I am? It’s a great book.”

“ _1984_ is better.”

“In what universe is _1984_ better than _Brave New World_?”

“In all universes, Katie. Ask anyone.”

Katie raised an eyebrow at him and his heart did a flip inside his chest. He ignored it.

“I did my Masters thesis on authoritarian dystopian governments in literature, Marcus. I think I can speak with some authority.”

“Bad authority,” he mumbled under his breath, but Katie must have heard him because she laughed again and went back to cleaning.

“If you did your Masters, why aren’t you teaching?” Marcus blurted, then clenched his teeth as he thought about what she had told him the night before, “Sorry.”

She waved her hand, “It has nothing to do with all that, I’m just not much of a teacher. Too bossy, I think. Anyways, I like working with my hands. Always have.”

“Me too,” Marcus used his toast to mop up the rest of his egg yolk, “I don’t know how I ended up working entirely online.”

Katie took the empty plates away and came back to refill his coffee, “How did you end up working entirely online?”

“It pays well. Really well. And by staying in this stupid town I save a ton of money on rent so I can put money away every month and retire early. I’ll probably retire at forty and go live off my savings somewhere else. Somewhere that’s not here.”

“And what would you do?”

Marcus ran his hands through his hair, belatedly realizing that he probably messed it up pretty bad, “I don’t know. Play soccer on the beach? Pick up knitting? Literally anything, so long as it’s not marketing and has nothing to do with my father or his terrible friends.”

“How terrible?”

“Try ‘probably Klan members’ terrible. I got out of that house as soon as I could but I couldn’t go far. I grew up just one town over from here.”

Katie’s eyes widened and Marcus immediately regretted telling her that. But moments later she filled his coffee back up with a small smile.

“To terrible fathers then,” she murmured, and Marcus looked into her eyes. She looked sad and resigned, but she shook it off, poured herself a cup of coffee and tapped the rim of her cup to his in a bastardization of a cheers. He couldn’t help but smile at her, but too late he remembered that he didn’t like to show his teeth often. He hid his teeth behind his lips, and saw Katie watching his mouth with interest.

“Are you about to ask if I make so much money why I don’t get my teeth fixed?”

“Nope,” she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned with one hip on the counter, “Not my business.”

-

Katie didn’t notice how much time had passed talking with Marcus until the electronic chime went off again hours later. She jumped in place and spun toward the door, plastering her best customer service smile on her face. She dropped it and sighed in relief when she saw who it was.

“Hey Donna.”

It was Katie’s replacement who worked the 5:00 AM shift, which meant it was time for Katie to clock out. She glanced outside and saw that indeed the sun had almost risen, the sky was streaked with the beginnings of a stunning desert sunrise.

Donna nodded at Katie as she donned her apron and shot a dirty look at Marcus, who was pulling out his wallet and scrambling to pay Katie before she clocked out. Katie got the impression that Donna recognized Marcus as a regular and figured she must have the same impression of him as the cook whose name she still couldn’t remember. The cook thought Marcus to be rude and mean, but after talking to him extensively for two nights in a row Katie felt comfortable in her opinion that Marcus had some rough edges but was a gentleman at his core.

“Nothing to report, Donna. It was a quiet night.”

“Just wait until the weekend, dear. It’s always worse on the weekends.”

Katie nodded, then took Marcus’ bill and ran it through the register before clocking out and hanging up her apron. When she turned around, purse in hand, Marcus was gone. She was surprised to feel her stomach sink at the realization, surprised that she felt such an acute loss of his presence despite only knowing him for about 48 hours. She shook her head, waved goodbye to Donna and the cook, then stepped outside into the rapidly dawning day.

The sky was like a painting, slashed through with brilliant veins of gold, red, orange and pink. The vast expanse of sandy, dirty desert seemed to shimmer in the growing heat and Katie breathed in the dry air, let it fill her lungs to bursting before she let it out with one big puff.

She suddenly had the unnerving feeling that she was being watched. She could see a figure in the corner of her vision leaning against the brick wall just outside the diner. She spun to face him, and sighed when she saw it was Marcus.

“You scared me.”

“I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry.” He gave her one of his classic close-mouthed smirks and her heart throbbed painfully in her chest. Part of her wanted to panic at how much she was feeling whenever he looked at her, she had only just met him. She wanted to run away, to leave town again, to erase him from her mind.

But then again, Katie had spent a lot of time running.

She walked to his side and leaned up against the wall next to him, “I’m going to try not to run away. And I’d like to get to know you, if that’s all right. I’m a little out of practice talking to people but-”

He kissed her.

His hands threaded through the strands of her hair and pulled her close, taking possession of her senses. She opened to him, felt him, tasted the coffee on him. Relished in the closeness, of the smell of him, in the strength of his arms.

She pulled away slightly and he pressed his forehead to hers.

“I’m sorry if that was too forward. I’m a little out of practice too.”

She snorted out a laugh and tugged at his leather jacket, “I need to rest, but I’m off tonight and don’t want to mess up my sleep schedule. Know of any place with good coffee?”

“Would you slap me if I said that I make pretty good coffee at my place?”

\------

Katie tentatively knocked at the door of the apartment she assumed was Marcus’. They had exchanged numbers and he had sent her his address right away, inviting her over for coffee and a movie. She had gone to sleep with a smile on her face, but she was worried as she knocked that she was moving too fast, that she was doing something rash and dangerous, that she was disrespecting Oliver’s memory.

No, she couldn’t think like that. Her therapist’s voice echoed in her head telling her that it was alright to move on, it was alright to be happy. Oliver was gone, and Katie was a grown woman. She braced herself as she heard the lock slide open on the other side.

As soon as she saw Marcus’ face she realized how silly she was for worrying. His dark eyes saw right through hers, his intense gaze warmed her from the core, and the smell of coffee and a clean house beckoned her inside.

“Your apartment is about as shitty as mine, Marcus. But it looks like your ceiling fan works, so I win,” she smirked cheekily at him and he chuckled, the low sound resonated through her body and made her fidget, suddenly too warm in her light jacket. She shifted it off her shoulders and Marcus put out a hand for it and draped it over the back of the couch.

“Coffee?” He gestured toward the kitchen. Katie nodded and led the way, finding the kitchen with ease. The cabinets were ancient and drooping, the fridge clicked and clacked seemingly at random, and the only things on the counter was an extra large French press and several bags of high-end coffee.

“Why would you ever come and drink the swill at Joe’s if you can have the good stuff here?”

“Change of scenery, mostly. And the bacon is pretty good,” he stepped closer to her, crowding her space a little and making her heart race, “and the view has recently improved dramatically.”

Katie could feel a flush race over her cheeks and she wrinkled her nose in protest, “Now I know for sure you’re full of shit. Pour up.”

Marcus chuckled again and poured two generous mugs of coffee, gesturing back to the living room and the plain furnishings within.

“I know it’s not much,”

“You’re saving money, I get that. Plus if it’s just you why would you need more than one couch?”

“Exactly, thank you. My friends think I’m depriving myself.”

“Nope, you’re fine. I’m the same way. I live alone, so why should I fill the space with more than I need?”

She sipped at the coffee and moaned, “This is the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had in my life. I really needed this, thank you.”

“Any time,” Marcus said, and Katie felt her face flush again as she realized that he really meant it. His gaze was fixed on her again, eyes wide as if he was afraid she would leave, full lips parted to reveal just a hint of his teeth. She set her coffee down gently and pressed her lips to his. He sighed into her mouth and deepened the kiss, lacing his tongue with hers and pulling her tight against his chest.

They stayed like that for some time before Katie pulled away.

“Marcus, I do really like you.”

“You want to slow down.”

Katie nodded and Marcus shifted back against the couch but left his hand on her thigh where it had fallen during their heated kiss, “That’s fine. However you want to do this. It’s…been a while, so stop me if I get overeager.”

Katie couldn’t help but laugh, “It’s been a while for me too. Let’s just watch that movie.”


End file.
